1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable terminals. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for displaying an image using virtual illumination and to a portable terminal using the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable devices, such as portable terminals, digital cameras, etc., are now ubiquitous. The trend in the development of the portable devices is to decrease their size. The reduction of the size of the portable devices has promoted convergence of digital devices, so that a technology can be developed to integrate a digital camera with a portable terminal. As a result, a user does not need to carry separately a portable terminal and a digital camera. That is, the portable terminal with a digital camera function can allow the user to capture a person, people, or things, etc., using the digital camera function.
The user of the portable terminal captures an image via the camera installed in the portable terminal, considering a position, a type and brightness of an external light source. Examples of the external light source are a natural light source, an electric light, etc. The conventional portable terminal with a digital camera equipped with a flash can capture an image using illumination emitted from the flash.
However, the conventional portable terminal with a digital camera allows a user to capture an image, considering the position, the type and the brightness of an external light source. Although a flash installed in the conventional portable terminal with a digital camera is used, the user of the portable terminal may consider the illumination of the external light source to capture an image.
Furthermore, the conventional portable terminal with a digital camera allows for only a few, preset effects to be applied to an image captured thereby. Therefore, the user of the portable terminal cannot reflect desired illumination effects on the image captured by the conventional portable terminal.
A method is required to reflect a user's desired illumination effect on an image that is captured by the digital camera installed in the portable terminal.